Waiting for the Present
by Mewoo27
Summary: Most high schools do not look favorably to extended absences. Kagome's was no different, although 500 years was pushing it a bit. How will Ouran, a school "more befitting of her station" recover from the Shikon no Miko's presence? Drabble series.
1. Returning Home

500 years.

It seemed like such a long time, and indeed the waiting had dragged on through boredom and despair. Never loneliness though.

Now, however, standing at the bottom of 500 steps, it seemed as if the time had passed to swiftly.

How was she to face them now? Knowing what she did, living as she had?

And they would never know, they couldn't know.

She was different now. She didn't know how to act like she had, could barely remember being that young, but she would have to, for them. For the family she had been waiting for.

The black haired woman gazed at her feet. 500 years, 500 steps. A step for each year lost.

She could do this, all she needed to do was regress.

Her foot touched the first stair.

There was a shift in the air, minuscule, but somehow the woman seemed different, changed.

A step, a year.

A Black haired girl stood in front of a shrine.

Deep breaths, and the wind breathed with her.

She was 16. She had just defeated the enemy. She was a girl.

A delicate hand clutched between her breasts, cursing the jewel that caused this.

"Mother, I'm home."


	2. Souta

Kagome was different.

Oh, he didn't mean the physical changes but more the way she held herself and the way she acted.

It was as if she was trying so hard to play the role of a sister, of a daughter, that she was forgetting to be herself.

Of course it could have been chalked up to grief or PTSD, Souta considered. She had come back from a war and undoubtedly people had died.

Yet, there was something else. A grace Kagome had that she didn't before. Her smiles were forced, and every now and then there was a wistful look in her eyes, like she wanted to grab them all and never let go.

She wasn't even playing with Buyo, instead watching him disinterestedly as he sauntered past.

He had asked what happened with Inuyasha and she had to think about it before she could answer. How could she forget so soon?

Souta couldn't help but wonder what had changed his sister, but he still wanted her back. He wanted her smiles, and her hugs, and the way that she would yell at him and pull at his ears.

Not this doll. Never this doll.


	3. Mama

Kagome was different.

Her appearance was most obvious, especially the blue crescent moon that now adorned her forehead, and the way her face was more angled, sharper. The grace with which she walked.

She watched her daughter from afar and worried, as she always had.

Nevertheless she would continue as always, smiling and caring for her little baby, no matter how she came back. But despite how bad Kagome's physical could be, Mama Higurashi would have preferred each and every one of them to the scars she carried within her now.

She lay in bed, somehow too tired to sleep.

Sometime around midnight a shaft of moonlight broke across her futon.

"Mama?" A soft voice called

"What is it, baby?"

"I was wandering" There was a pause, and a shuffling. "Could I sleep with you, please? Just for tonight?"

Mama smiled to herself, she choose not to reply, but instead lifted her cover wide.

Kagome joined her quickly, snuggling their bodies close together, and Mama smiled, knowing all was right in the world again.

She would always be her little girl, no matter what, or how much she grew up on her own.

Together they fell into a peaceful sleep.


	4. Differences

"Mama?"

"Yes, honey?"

"I don't think I can go to school anymore."

"What makes you say that?" She asked carefully. It must have been so difficult for her little girl, trying to act as if nothing had happened, when almost everything had.

"It's not the same." And didn't she sound so heartbroken. Kagome's face was stoic but her voice cracked and her frame hunched, as if to hug herself.

"Oh, my sweet little girl" Mama cooed, dragging her wayward daughter down, "Of course it's not the same!"

Kagome looked up at her mother,

"Well, are you the same?"

"No" She muttered, shaking her head like a little girl. It had taken a while, but Kagome was finally getting back inter her role as a child of the house, no matter how aged she truly was.

"Then how can you expect anything else to remain the same?"

Kagome's face closed off, and she nodded. Mama worried for a moment until she saw her frame relax.

"I think we should start looking for a new school for you, a fresh start where you don't have to pretend to be who you were."

"That sounds nice"


	5. Decisions

Kagome groaned and shied away from the many applications sitting innocently on her desk.

Truly, she didn't even want to think about the possibility of a new school. The whole point of returning was to make everything the same again.

Kagome sighed.

Her mother was right. 500 years and her mother would always know best. Things _were _different. When was the last time she had thought about any of her friends? Either her ones from this modern era who were strangers to her now or her sister in all but blood Sango who she watched grow old and die.

Time seemed to wash the thoughts away.

Truly, she couldn't claim some romantic notion like her family were in her thoughts every day she was gone; she had grown apart from them, older if not in physical age then in experience.

She looked despondently at the dozens of different schools available in Tokyo.

The problem wasn't the school exactly, true, she didn't even recognise half of her supposed friends, congratulating her on her recovery from her supposed "illnesses", Kagome just didn't think she could endure a middle school environment anymore.

It was time to call Sesshomaru.


	6. Worrying

Mama Higurashi peered at her daughter through the window. She was pacing restlessly out in the courtyard.

_Now _what was the problem?

She knew her daughter was different; aged, wiser, she thought it may have been an aftereffect of the innumerable deaths she witnessed and caused, but every now and then she had the sneaky suspicion it was something more.

It wasn't her place to pry though, as long as Kagome was doing fine, then there was nothing to meddle with.

But her daughter wasn't doing fine. 3 moths she had been back and she was still struggling. A different school would help, she hoped, and that should have been the end of that. But now Mama had to watch as her daughter worried herself into oblivion yet again.

Mama sighed and leant her head out of the window. "Kagome! You're 16 years in 2 weeks, just come in here and tell me what you want to say!"

Kahome jumped at the address, then blushed.

Sheepishly she dawdled into the house, seeking out her mother.

"Now" Mama started as they sat, "What is it?"

Kagome sat silently for a moment.

Mama glared.

"It's about my fianceé"


	7. Fiance

Mama nodded, sipping on some tea. "Oh, so Inuyasha finally asked? How're you liking your new relationship?

Kagome bowed her head, eyes almost shadowed.

"No Mama, Inuyasha died."

Mama gasped, placing the tea cup down harshly.

"Oh, sweetie, I'm so sorry. Are you okay?" She looked searchingly at her daughter.

"Yes, Mama, I'm fine. It was a long time ago now."

Mama narrowed her eyes but decided not to follow that up.

"Then who are you engaged to?"

Kagome shifted in her seat, "It's more like a formal arrangement, that at some point in the future we will marry. Right now we're just friends."

"That sounds oddly strict. Who is it, Kagome?"

"I don't want you to get the wrong idea, Mama, I do truly love him as a friend and I could think of no better person to spend my life with, despite not being _in _love with him."

"I don't understand where you're going with this, honey"

"I don't want you to think I'm replacing Inuyasha" Kagome muttered desperately.

Mama just sat silently, waiting. Knowing her daughter would out with it eventually.

"It's my Lord Sesshomaru, Mama."


	8. A Short Story

"I thought he tried to kill you?"

This was a definite change, and not one Mama thought she liked.

Kagome looked into her eyes. "Yes, he did" she admitted, "But I do not fault him for it, nor is there anything to forgive."

Here Mama wanted very much to disagree, but held her tongue.

Kagome sighed, sipping her tea. "You have to understand, Mama, I was young, and foolish. Inuyasha never loved me, but my face that reminded him so much of Kikyo. I never saw, though. He left me for her, after the battle at the end, with that Spider Demon, but Sesshomaru, who had come to help us, who had trained us as much as he could in battle, he stayed, Mama."

Kagome played with the empty cup in her hand.

"He is a good friend, for no other reason than he stayed. When everyone else left or died, he stayed, and through it all we became quite good friends. He's my best friend at least."

Kagome fell silent, her tirade finished. But all Mama could think of was how many more questions she now had, and how many she really didn't want an answer to.


	9. Schools

Mama nodded to herself, accepting this story for now.

"What I don't understand" Mama said slowly, "is why you chose to tell me _now_."

Kagome breathed, only now realising all she let slip. Damn her carelessness. Usually she could be very tight lipped, having practiced for centuries. But around her mother, she truly was 16 again.

"It's about my schooling. Sesshomaru wants to send me to an elite rich school."

Mama raised an eyebrow, "Does he now? And you're okay with that?"

"Why wouldn't be? I need a school, now I have a school, apparently if you throw enough money around anything is possible." She finished, dryly.

"I suppose this is a solution, but since when are you so fine with accepting other people's money?"

Kagome shuffled, but said nothing.

Mama sighed, but moved on, endeavouring not to point out any more inconsistencies in her daughter's behaviour. "So, what are your options?"

Kagome smiled, glad of the acceptance.

We'll, there's St. Lobelia Girls Academy, That's an all-girls school" She said in an aside, grinning. "Then there's Ouran High School, which is mixed but has a more academically themed syllabus."


	10. Obvious Choice

In the end it was Ouran that Kagome asked Sesshomaru to send her to, Ouran that had caught her fancy; whether it was because of the various business classes that they offered (although she would be hard pressed to find something she didn't already know about), or because she was honestly quite scared of some of the things that seemed to be happening in Lobelia (what exactly is a Zuka club? And why are the girls so fanatical?) it did not matter.

No, all that mattered was that here was her new start, a way to become a high school student again. Something that she had waited 500 years for already, yet now the time was upon her, she didn't know if she could do it or not.

She wanted to make friends. Not that she had spent the last 500 years alone, but almost every demon was afraid of her, or answered to her, which did not lead to very strong friendships.

She wanted to feel young again, to giggle and chat about fashion or boys or the latest gossip. But what kind of peer could she find in a school of children as an ageless demon?


	11. Yellow

When Kagome saw the dress, the first thing she tried was her powers of purification. It was a monstrosity, she was sure it was evil some way, yet the dress remained the same. Of course, it was an inanimate object, so really, the person she should've be trying to purify was the school Principal.

No. Perhaps the conspiracy lay deeper?

Regardless, the garment made her seriously consider enrolling in Lobelia instead, never mind she had (or rather, Sesshomaru had with her money) paid the tuition. She also considered wearing the boys' uniform and living her high school career as a male.

It couldn't be that hard.

But then again, living a lie would not be a good way to start her new life. Even if her mother probably wouldn't mind, and Shouta would get a kick out of it.

And besides, what kind of crazy person spent all day cross dressing to get out of wearing a stupid dress.

In fact, using all of her new 'high schooler' personality, Kagome found she quite liked the petticoats. It was the obnoxious yellow colour that got on her nerves, and hurt her eyes. Besides, it clashed with her moon.


	12. Ending

500 years ago:

The final battle was over. They had all lived, Miroku, Sango, Inuyasha, Kirara, Shippo, all of them. It was a miracle.

Sesshomaru quickly returned to his lands, and took to caring for Rin. All was well.

And then something happened.

Kagome, having expended all of her powers in the battle, faded.

She only seemed tired at first, needing to rest a little more than usual. The others thought that she was just delaying the trip back to the well, delaying saying goodbye to her friends for the last time.

She lost her appetite, and her smile, although she tried to reassure her friends that she was alright.

They thought she was just depressed and tried to cheer her up, put her in a light-hearted mood.

Then one day she collapsed. She could not walk anymore. The weakness in her body she was hiding having become too much.

Then one day she went to sleep and didn't wake up.

Kaede could only say that she had some sort of weakness about her, nothing that could help.

Sesshomaru had looked upon her, hummed blandly and left saying nothing.

Then one day, in Kaede's bedroom, she died.


	13. Waking up

500 years ago

Inuyasha was inconsolable. To him the love of his life had passed away for no apparent reason, after everything had ended, and now he had nothing to live for.

The others were just as bad. Kagome was supposed to be the hero, she was supposed to be alright no matter what. Instead she had become a martyr.

News spread, and the humans of Japan, who had glorified her existence, became vengeful, forgetting her cause and attacking demons indiscriminately.

The demons hid.

And all alone Kagome lay, in the house of a priestess, never changing, seemingly forgotten.

Kaede died, some say of a broken heart.

Shippo tried to go down the well, to see Kagome's family, if only to have someone to hug him again.

Inuyasha sat by the ancient tree and cried until there were no more tears and stared into the distance, looking at nothing.

Sango and Miroku went on with their lives, they were human after all, and their wold was ever changing.

Kouga married Ayame and carried on the legacy of his tribe deep in the mountains, hiding with the rest of his kin.

5 years passed.

And Kagome, somehow forgotten, woke up.


	14. Beggining

Kagome woke up from a deep sleep.

She felt different, vaguely remembering feeling so tired before, so heavy.

Now she felt, light, free. As if a great weight had been lifted.

She supposed this was how she was meant to have felt after the final battle.

Getting up, she realised that she had fallen asleep dressed again, and in the back of Kaede's house no less.

She got up, walking around the bare home, not noticing how empty it was. She walked into the village, and barely registered how different it had become.

She walked as if in a dream, dazed and not really seeing what was in front of her.

The villagers saw her but did not know if she was a ghost come to haunt them or a shape shifting demon. They avoided her, not meeting her foggy eyes.

It was difficult at first, stumbling around even with her newfound strength. Her mind was muddled and her thoughts vague. It was two days until anyone found her, after she had wandered from the village, and it was not who she had expected.

"Welcome Back, Woman"

And that was the first day in the rest of her immortality.


	15. Living

Of course it was hard at first. It took time for her to understand that the well was broken, that she was miko, yes, but also something else, something more.

It took time for her to understand that Inuyasha never loved her, and to move on.

It took longer to realise that she was going to watch her mortal friends wither and fade whilst she remained, forever youthful. Sango, Miroku, even Rin all left her. Or she knew it was not their fault, just as she could not help her own nature.

It took a very long time to notice how strong she was. How even upper level demons could not challenge her any longer. How very easy it was to destroy, or to create. She was miko still, after all, she breathed life.

It took almost an eternity for her to stop hurting, pining for her family.

But that is the way of the immortals, if she had nothing else, she had an abundance of time.

She did not stay with Sesshomaru always, but she always returned to him, and it took less time than she would have thought for them to admit that they were… more than friends.


End file.
